New Delhi: As the world reels from the impact of the Covid-19 crisis, which has also induced an economic recession, there are many working tirelessly at the forefront to tackle the challenge. In India, several women are working round-the-clock, seven days a week, to ensure the smooth functioning of key departments — administration, diagnosis, prevention, research and cure.

Preeti Sudan, secretary at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has been working on aligning all departments to execute the Narendra Modi government’s policies to prevent the spread of the disease. Beela Rajesh, health secretary of Tamil Nadu, has been proactive in engaging with citizens through her department and Twitter. The state currently has more than 600 active cases, one of the highest in the country.

Dr Priya Abraham, director of National Institute of Virology, Pune, has made a significant medical breakthrough by isolating the deadly coronavirus. This helps in understanding the disease better and finding treatment regimens.

Dr Nivedita Gupta, senior scientist at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), is busy designing the treatment and testing protocols for the country while Dr Renu Swarup, secretary, Department of Biotechnology, is spending her time trying to find a vaccine.

Preeti Sudan

A 1983 batch IAS officer from the Andhra Pradesh cadre, Sudan is usually seen leaving her office at Nirman Bhawan late at night.

An M.Phil. in Economics and postgraduate in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics, Sudan also served the World Bank in Washington as a consultant.

Her ministry is the nodal agency for fighting the present coronavirus challenge. Sudan, along with Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, coordinates with sister departments in the central and state government. The two conduct regular reviews of the evolving situation.

“She is also involved in the regular review of preparedness with the states and union territories. Also, she is the first point of contact for any query arising from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office or from the office of Union Minister,” said a senior official from her ministry who did not wish to be identified.

“She played a major role in the evacuation of the 645 students from Wuhan, China,” the official added.

Dr Nivedita Gupta

Working in the Division of Epidemiology & Communicable Diseases, and in-charge of viral diseases at the country’s apex health research department, Dr Gupta’s primary responsibility is building testing and treatment protocols in India.

She was also the primary scientist involved in the investigations and containment of the Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala last year.

An MBBS from Lady Hardinge Medical College, Dr Gupta is the key person to augment the Covid-19 diagnostic capacity all across the country. In the short time span of two months, over 130 laboratories in the government sector and 52 laboratories in the private sector were roped in to diagnose coronavirus cases.

“She worked day and night, including Sundays, to investigate the Nipah cases last year. It was not even a pandemic like coronavirus. Nowadays, for several days together, several scientists stay in the office to conclude the investigations, including her,” said an official in her department, also on the condition of anonymity.

Gupta has a PhD in molecular medicine from Jawaharlal Nehru University and has been instrumental in setting up the virus research and diagnostic laboratory network of ICMR. This network was established subsequent to the 2009 pandemic influenza outbreak. The Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL) network of 106 laboratories is largely considered as the backbone of the nation, and has ensured the capacity to detect the virus in almost all parts of the country.

Dr Gupta has aggressively investigated the viral outbreaks such as enteroviruses, arboviruses (dengue, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis & Zika), influenza, measles and rubella among others. She was part of the team that worked extensively on deciphering the aetiology, and developed management guidelines, for the acute encephalitis syndrome in different parts of India.

Renu Swarup

Swarup has been working at the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) for the past 30 years. She held the position of Scientist ‘H’ — which denotes an outstanding scientist — until April 2018, when she was appointed as secretary.

A key person in the formulation of the Biotechnology Vision in 2001, the National Biotechnology Development Strategy in 2007 and Strategy II in 2015-20, Swarup is now involved in the crucial research to develop a coronavirus vaccine.

In an interview to ThePrint, Swarup had said that she is busy scaling up the manufacturing capacity of start-ups that have made low-cost testing kits and ventilators for Covid-19.

Her ministry has asked all IIT incubators to focus on research and development of portable ventilators, genome sequencing and isolation of the strain of the novel coronavirus from blood samples.

A PhD in Genetics and Plant Breeding, Swarup is known for promoting women in science, and was a member of the Task Force on Women in Science, which was constituted by the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister.

Priya Abraham

Abraham leads the backbone of the country right now — the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, which is affiliated to the ICMR. The NIV was initially the only testing centre in the country for Covid-19.

As the number of cases spike on a daily basis, the NIV has succeeded in reducing the testing time of Covid-19 samples to just four hours a sample from 12-14 hours.

The NIV had confirmed the first three positive Covid-19 cases in India. The institute had initially done all the testing, but ICMR subsequently increased the number of laboratories, anticipating a jump in cases. Under Abraham’s leadership, the NIV helped these labs with troubleshooting, and ensured reagent supplies to the network of labs.

“The achievements which NIV has made at this crucial juncture were not possible without a hardworking and well-coordinated team,” Abraham told ThePrint.

Abraham holds an MBBS, MD (Medical Microbiology) and PhD from Christian Medical College in Vellore, where she was also the former head of the department of Clinical Virology at CMC Vellore. She is also a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists and Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. On invitation from the Medical Council of India, Abraham also drafted the syllabus for the Doctor of Medicine (DM) in Virology.

Her achievements also include being a key member of the WHO’s Guidelines Development Working Group Meeting for Hepatitis and HIV in 2012, and for Hepatitis B in 2014. In 2017, she served as WHO consultant in Myanmar to formulate the National Hepatitis Testing.

Beela Rajesh

As the health secretary of Tamil Nadu, Rajesh has been at the forefront of tackling the challenge in her state.

A 1997 batch IAS officer, she is known as a media-friendly bureaucrat and is very active on Twitter.

“Virus can affect anyone, let’s be gentle and sensitive towards each other and wage a coordinated battle against Covid19,” she posted recently.

Apart from sharing her thoughts, she also responds to queries directed at her or her department.

An MBBS graduate from Madras Medical College, Beela earlier served as sub-collector of Chengalpattu, commissioner of Fisheries and commissioner of Town and Country Planning in Tamil Nadu. She was also the commissioner of Indian Medicine and Homeopathy before being transferred as the health secretary in 2019.

Tamil Nadu ranks third among all Indian states in the NITI Aayog Health Index given its vastly improved health outcomes.

Under Rajesh, the Tamil Nadu Health System Reform Program was set up with the state government, Centre and World Bank signing a $287 million loan agreement in June 2019. The program aims to improve the quality of health care, reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and fill equity gaps in reproductive and child health services in Tamil Nadu.

A byproduct of the coronavirus pandemic is the fear it’s ignited across the globe. A subtle cough, scratchy throat or stuffy nose can lead many to believe they’ve contracted COVID-19. Styles P is convinced he battled the virus in January.

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(CNN)Afeni Shakur Davis, the mother of one of hip-hop’s most seminal and iconic figures, has died at age 69, the Marin County, California, sheriff’s office said Tuesday.

Though she is best known as Tupac Shakur’s mom, Shakur Davis also was a Black Panther as a young adult and an activist and philanthropist in her later years.

“Sheriff’s Coroners Office will lead investigation to determine exact cause & manner of Afeni Shakur’s death,” the office said in a tweet.

Afeni Shakur Davis in 2003.

Shakur Davis was a “well-loved, well-respected” member of the community, Pittman said.

“Miss Shakur has had an extensive background not only in the community but her involvement with so many things,” he said. “She’s been a leader, a person people followed. All that said about who she’s been and where’s she’s at now, this is a tragic loss for this community.”

The Shakur family, in a statement, said she “embodied strength, resilience, wisdom and love. She was a pioneer for social change and was committed to building a more peaceful world.”

From drugs to arts

In a 2005 interview ahead of the opening of the now-shuttered Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Shakur Davis recalled how her life was almost derailed by drugs and how her son got it back on track.

Her drug use made her so oblivious to what was happening in her life that when someone told her in 1990 that her son — then on the precipice of becoming the biggest name in hip-hop — was going to be on “The Arsenio Hall Show,” she thought the person was lying, she said.

In the mid-1980s, she was homeless in New York and “messing around with cocaine,” Shakur Davis said. Despite the drug use, she was still coherent enough to realize that Tupac would become a product of the streets if she didn’t make different choices.

“I was running around with militants, trying to be badder than I was, trying to stay up later than I should,” she said in the 2005 interview.

She decided to enroll Tupac in the 127th Street Ensemble, a Harlem theater group, something she called “the best thing I could’ve done in my insanity.” They later moved to Maryland, where she enrolled him in the Baltimore School for the Arts, and then to a small town outside Sausalito.

It was there that Tupac confronted her about her cocaine use.

“He asked me if I could handle it, and I said yeah because I’d been dipping and dabbing all my life,” she said during the interview. “What pissed him off is that I lied to him.”

‘Pac told the local drug dealers not to sell to her, she said, and he told his mother to get clean or to forget about being involved in his life.

‘Arts can save children’

She got clean in 1991, she said, and when her son was gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996, she resisted the urges to delve back into her old bad habits. She instead founded Amaru Entertainment to keep her son’s music alive.

Later, she realized that her life — mistake-ridden as it may have been — might serve as a lesson to others.

“Arts can save children, no matter what’s going on in their homes,” she said. “I wasn’t available to do the right things for my son. If not for the arts, my child would’ve been lost.”

She provided the majority of the money to begin the $4 million first phase of the arts center, while her Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation hosted poetry and theater camps for youngsters in the Atlanta area. The family said she established the foundation to “instill a sense of freedom of expression and education through the arts.”

“I learned that I can’t save the world, but I can help a child at a time,” she said, pointing out that her new life of philanthropy wouldn’t have been possible without the influence of her legendary son. “God created a miracle with his spirit. I’m all right with that.”

Joel Franco@OfficialJoelF

Afeni Shakur on her son Tupac: “I miss him….”
Now they’re both reunited. RIP

And as much as she credited Tupac with inspiring her to help others, the tribulations she endured in raising him weren’t lost on the multiplatinum artist. He regularly invoked her in his music, perhaps never as directly as in his chart-topping song, “Dear Mama.”

In it, he rapped, “And even as a crack fiend, mama, you always was a black queen, mama/I finally understand, for a woman it ain’t easy trying to raise a man/You always was committed, a poor single mother on welfare, tell me how you did it/There’s no way I can pay you back, but the plan is to show you that I understand.”

We were taken through a tour of Power Records and the studios in Memphis, USA

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Here is a free download for all the ladies this Valentines from Aaron Soul and Memz Capone. Enjoy the vibes and make sure you share and stream the New Songs from all the YourDamSelf Worldwide artists on Spotify and iTunes.

2018 Uncle Murda Rap Up| Lenny Grant AKA Uncle Murda hits us this New Year’s Eve 2018 with his infamous gritty NY-style ‘Rap Up,’ and oh, how we at Bombay Hott Radio love it! Let us know what you think below, and who do you feel had the best ‘Rap Up’ between (Mad) Skillz (https://youtu.be/FgiIsfsl2pI) and Lenny Grant AKA Uncle Murda?